Ahmedabad: Mocking BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s pet project — the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue,Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that BJP leaders don’t read history books and have no understanding of Sardar Patel who had termed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a poisonous ideology soon after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Addressing a massive public rally at Bardoli in South Gujarat at the conclusion of Youth Congress’s Vikas Khoj Yatra this afternoon,Gandhi launched a frontal attack on CM Narendra Modi in his own home turf.
Without naming Modi, Gandhi said, ‘they talk about building a statue of Sardar Patel but they don’t know anything about Sardar Patel or Mahatma Gandhi. They don’t know what Sardar said about RSS. Sardar had said that the RSS was a poisonous ideology which would destroy India.’
‘These people don’t know what Sardar and Gandhiji said and what they stood for. Which ideology killed Gandhiji? the same ideology. What did Sardar Patel do after Gandhiji’s assassination? He proposed a ban on the RSS,’ he said.
Aiming a jab at Modi he said, ‘and this man (Modi) spent his whole life in RSS. Sardar dedicated his whole life to Congress and fought for the poor.’
He said, ‘He (Modi) says whatever comes to his mind. He is not bothered whether what he says is true or false. People say that there was need for ‘Congress-free’ India but the Congress is not an organisation but an idea for which Sardar Patel and Mahatma Gandhi dedicated their whole life. Sardar and Gandhi are alive in our heart and our mind. We have not given our lives to RSS but to the Congress and for the poor.’
Referring to the issue of corruption, Gandhi said that, leaders of the BJP talk about corruption in the country, but they fail to spot it in Gujarat.
‘Look at the Gujarat cabinet. How many ministers are tainted? Their ministers had to go to the jail. To fight corruption, the Congress empowered the people with Right to Information Act. According to the act, every state should have 10 RTI commissioners,but Gujarat has only one commissioner,’ he pointed out.
He said that the Congress was trying to pass the Lokpal Bill in the parliament and questioned the same for Gujurat saying that, here the government tried to prevent Lokayukta in the state. And added that Lokayukta had been appointed after a gap of 9 years.
‘Congress wants to pass six important bills including the Lokpal in parliament but it is not getting support from other parties. BJP has failed to come out with its support,’ he said.
He said that in Gujarat, the state assembly meets for few days only.
On development issue, he said that whatever progress Gujarat has made till now that is due to the hard work of the people of the state and not due to a single person.
Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress government has done much for the farmers, tribals and the poor. He said that Congress government waived farmers loan worth Rs 70,000 crore. But in Gujarat farmers are committing suicide.
‘Sikh farmers in Kutch are being driven away and they complained to me but, Punjab’s Akali Dal government which is an ally of the BJP has chosed to look away.
In Gujarat, there is a government of rich people and it is not for the poor. It is run by a select few.
Congress wants to eradicate poverty but these people wants to destroy the poor,’ he added. (PTI)
Criticizing Gujurat leaders he said that, even as the Congress is trying to empower the people and trying to bring out the poor from the Below Poverty Line (BPL), in Gujarat there are 38 lakh people who are living under the BPL.
‘Farmers are committing suicide and the tribals are dying of hunger and these people are talking about making a statue,’ he mocked.
Gandhi said that around 13,000 schools have been closed down and nobody uttered a word about it. Whereas the Congress has come out with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guaranttee Scheme, the RTI, the RTE and the Food Security Bill. The Congress is trying to empower people, he stated.
He said, ‘around 55,000 small businesses have closed down in Gujarat but they don’t say anything about it.
The Congress government gave Vanbandhu Scheme for the tribals but it is the tribals in Gujarat who have not benefitted from it.’ (UNI)
